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![]() Stefano HatfieldiNews |
I am writing this from another bed this week: at a friend’s house in Cornwall, happy to have woken up to the miserable damp, grey skies. Because I...
I’m writing this from a bed in the coronary care unit of a major west London hospital. I’ve woken up in trepidation, but without pain or tightness...
The great American writer Paul Theroux once said: “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been; travellers don’t know where they’re going.”...
Who did not shed a tear when the world’s most – allegedly – uncool rock superstar, Chris Martin, brought out his “hero” Michael J Fox for...
During our one week of sunshine – in desperation to contemplate anything other than an endless parade of pernicious politicians and failing...
Full disclosure: having started my teaching career in two challenging state schools, I now work in a private day school. I also put both of my...
This is going to be a rubbish column – a dad joke for you to introduce the pungent subject of recycling bins. It’s a reminder that the 4 July...
The genteel Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate is more often in the news as one of the happiest places in the UK to live. However, this past week it...
Imagine you are the Government and you have an unprecedented teacher recruitment crisis, with the numbers signed up for this academic year almost 50...
Our Prime Minister recently launched a cynical attack on Britain’s “sick note” culture. But lived experience appears to be at odds with his...
At school this week, I set a standard creative writing challenge. It was a “show, don’t tell” descriptive writing exercise. My year 10s (14- to...
The definition of chutzpah is “extreme self-confidence or audacity”. Helpfully, dictionaries often include an exemplar alongside definitions to...
Since becoming an English teacher and no longer working late evenings as an editor, I’ve been able to reconnect with my great love of live...
The venerable 195-year-old Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race constitutes an unlikely addition to Broken Britain’s 2024 list of shame. I am not highlighting...
I have “the 100-day cough”. I’m hoping the “100-day” bit is a media construct and it won’t last that long, but the cough bit has persisted...
The actor Derek Thompson’s departure from the BBC soap Casualty this weekend was truly shocking. Not because his character, Charlie Fairhead, diced...
Since January, I’ve been hobbling around – despite orthotics, lifts and trendy, cushioned Hoka trainers – suffering from Achilles tendonitis....
When Benjamin Franklin remarked that, “in this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, the great American statesman...
In words not often written: I shed a little tear this week at a message from someone wishing to connect with me on LinkedIn. Laura, the daughter of a...
Have you ever been made redundant? Or made anyone redundant? The chances are that you will not have given or received notice mid-way through a task...
Poor Gregg Wallace: three words not often written in sequence. They are oxymoronic, not only because the Masterchef judge has been a well-remunerated...
How many of you know a SCITT from a PGCE, an NQT from an ECT, a TA from someone with QTS? Unless you work in education, few readers will know these...
It’s been the driest of Januaries for struggling pubs, according to reports today. As I come to the end of my 29th year of not drinking alcohol in...
Katharine Birbalsingh, self-styled “strictest head teacher in Britain”, is one of the great polarisers in British society. It is almost impossible...
Why has the brilliant ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office struck such a deep nerve? It is ITV’s most-watched drama in a decade but this isn’t...
In one short week, the controversial former footballer and manager, Joey Barton, has gone from ranting against female pundits to placing football at...
I was going to rage against the corrupt and corrosive honours system that allows the bumbling likes of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to hand out baubles...
A year ago, my 91-year-old Ma died after a terrible weekend ina south London hospital. This is not the place to explore that horrendous last 72 hours...
If you do not recognise the name Rebecca Welch, then by this weekend it should be impossible not to know who she is. Welch will become the first...
My teacher friend, a Grimsby Town supporter, was incandescent. For the second time in a year his hometown club was in the news. Back in January, it...
The question that did not bode well for the article that my Year 7 pupil was proposing for the school magazine: “Sir, can I write an article about...